Currently, there are a number of personal care products which are available to consumers which are directed toward improving the health and physical appearance of human keratinous tissues such as the skin, hair, and nails which are equally useful for pet hygiene and grooming. The majority of these products are directed to delaying, minimizing or even eliminating skin wrinkling and other histological changes typically associated with the aging of skin or environmental damage to human skin.
Mammalian keratinous tissue, particularly human skin, is subjected to a variety of insults by both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Such extrinsic factors include ultraviolet radiation, environmental pollution, wind, heat, infrared radiation, low humidity, harsh surfactants, abrasives, etc. Intrinsic factors, on the other hand, include chronological aging and other biochemical changes from within the skin. Whether extrinsic or intrinsic, these factors result in visible signs of skin damage. Typical skin damage includes thinning of the skin which occurs naturally as one ages. With such thinning, there is a reduction in the cells and blood vessels that supply the skin as well as a flattening of the dermal-epidermal junction which results in weaker mechanical resistance of this junction. See, for example, Oikarinen, "The Aging of Skin: Chronoaging Versus Photoaging," Photodermatol. Photoimmunol. Photomed.. vol. 7, pp. 3-4, 1990. Other damage seen in aging or damaged skin includes spider vessels or red blotchiness, sallowness, sagging, under eye circles, and skin irritation which results in an itch. Additional damage incurred as a result of both external and internal factors includes damage to the keratinous tissue that constitutes lips, hair, and nails.
Therefore, there is a need for products and methods which seek to remedy these keratinous tissue conditions such that the condition of keratinous tissues like skin, hair, and nails are regulated.
It has now been surprisingly found that topical compositions which contain farnesol may be used to provide prophylactic as well as therapeutic treatments for these keratinous tissue conditions. For instance, it has been found that such compositions are useful for treating atrophy of the skin as well as sallowness, sagging, spider vessels, and itch relief. The compositions have also been found to be useful in smoothing and/or softening the keratinous tissue that constitutes the lips, hair, and nails.